Joseph, Anthony
Entry updated 13 April 2026. Tagged: Author.
(1966- ) Trinidadian poet, author and musician, in the UK from 1989. His debut novel The African Origins of UFOs (excerpt in Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, anth 2000, ed Sheree R Thomas; much exp 2006), set among hustlers and outlaws in a Caribbean enclave of a distant planet, mixes prose and Poetry with the rhythms of Trinidadian speech, for which the publisher coined the evocative but not widely adopted phrase "afropsychedelic noir". Joseph is better known as a performance poet, particularly for his collaborations with jazz musicians. His albums Rowing Up River to Get Our Souls Back (2025) and The Ark (2026) continue the themes of a specifically Black future with roots in a Caribbean and African past, in which jazz, soul and dub all play a part. On the title track of The Ark he lists a number of fellow travellers on the titular vessel, including Sun Ra, Octavia E Butler, the writer and activist Amiri Baraka and the jazz drummer and composer Max Roach. [CWa]
Anthony Joseph
born Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago: 12 November 1966
works (selected):
- The African Origins of UFOs (Cromer, Norfolk: Salt Publishing 2006) [pb/]
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